NASA Langley shows off space-age technology

Daily Press: Eight-year-old Ava Paul of Charlottesville was trying to land a spaceship safely on a planet, presumably this one.

She studied the iPad on the tabletop, tapping it here and there, as the animated spacecraft dropped out of orbit and deployed an inflatable heat shield shaped like a giant mushroom cap that plowed its way through the atmosphere. A real version of the heat shield was inflated beside the table, towering over her.

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